Well. 3 wins from 3. I dont really think any of us imagined this in our wildest dreams. Absolutely brilliant. Well done RE and all the team.
Pinch me again still haven't woke up from last weekend
You didn’t think Boro would win the first 3 games , did you ? No !
Neither did I .
Well done to all the players and coaches.
Some of us will already be looking forward to to the next game
.Philip of Huddersfield 👍😄😄
Absolutely! Two difficult away games negotiated superbly. Hats off to the coaching team. Defensively, we appear very sound.
I can’t help thinking that Carrick’s side with its oh-so-soft underbelly would have drawn or even lost today’s game.
Battled away all game and eventually got the win they deserved. Should have been more comfortable but we never do anything easily.
Good to see the new boys getting some game time. 😎
Not only 3 out of 3, two of them are away games and two of the hardest away games that there are.
It's dreamland at the moment.
🚨 | Boropolis understands Middlesbrough have made a move for Lausanne forward Kaly Sène.
After @dailymailsport.
Good news and bad news !
Bad News
not Boro3 ?
my 10 point forecast is in doubt !
GOOD news
we are top of the league !
🎵🎵😢😢😢
I said we are top of the league!!!
with Stoke 🤔
OFB
Three good results and the last two against hard to beat teams away from Home.
However, “Typical Boro” reared its head once more, with some poor play against the ten men of Norwich.
Why revert to Carrickball, and continue to lose the ball in dangerous areas. Morris as good a game as he had, was the most guilty of being a little too clever and then losing the ball to the opposition. Some of the passing was too intricate when it did not have to be, especially with a player advantage.
I am sure, like Doncaster RE will not be happy with that aspect.
But, joint top, one cannot complain at that. 😀 👍
Hartlepool Mail player ratings - 8s for Aidan Morris & HH:
I won’t get to watch the game again today, which is about a big a certainty as you can get that Boro are about to win handsomely.
I knew it. Get in!
So Boro's tough opening fixtures continue to be skillfully negotiated with just a game against the would-be automatic promotion contenders Sheff Utd (are you Wednesday in disguise) before the break - who are now wallowing in bottom place.
This is why the Championship is the model that the Premier League's money has prevented it from being an equal contest. In the Championship, if you get it right as a team, work hard and coach players well, then you can be as good or better as any other.
In theory Boro had a poor pre-season, friendly results looked like there were too many problems, recruitment was struggling to get their targets and there was a lot of uncertainty over whether the new formation could work.
Doncaster proved to be a wake-up call and suddenly the message about working hard to stay in the game has been taken on board. Defensively, Boro appear more switched on and played their offside trap to perfection today and credit to Callum Brittain for looking like he's been playing in the team for months and looks to have developed a good partnership with Luke Ayling.
If Boro are now serious about mounting a promotion campaign this season then Hackney should be off the market - what price £20m versus the £170m that awaits? Can there be a better central midfield partnership in the league - sorry moneyball devotees but the whole point is to fund a chance at promotion not sell off your ticket to the big time. Those at the club have one week to realise the name of the game is not short-term gain for more long-term pain!
It may not have seemed liked a carefully thought out masterplan just a few months ago but when things start to fall into place, then it would be careless to mess it up now to prove the wrong point. It's been a long time since Boro had such a good start and teams who start well tend to have a decent chance of being there at the end of the season - early days but there appears a bit more steel in new-look Boro and still more to come from the new attacking players too.
Yes it's a completely unexpected surprise but Boro look a decent side and those relegated clubs and many of the other fancied teams are struggling - maybe we have chance after all even though it's only 3 games into the campaign.
OK, one game at a time...
Before you think I may have gone deliriously optimistic, it's probably just the 85 pints talking that OFB suggested we had in the pre-match poser 😜
If you still haven't worked out why 85 pints, minus your age, plus 40 equals your birth year then try 1985 pints instead then add the 40 then pause on the total before subtracting your age...
It works!
But only if you’ve already had this year’s birthday, I think. Still doesn’t work for me.
I think you need to drink another half 😉
It’s interesting to contrast the attitude of Hackney compared to Isak of Newcastle.
Hackney looks as though he’s enjoying playing with Boro and doing his best whilst Boro are waiting for an offer they can’t refuse. All credit to Hackney.
. By comparison Isak , what can I say , he’s gone about securing a move away completely wrong and listening to the pundits it’s looking like he’ll be staying at Newcastle and will have to recommence to win over the fans and his teammates.
Still rejoincing in Boro’s win today.
philip of Huddersfield 👍👍😁😁
It's a nice warm feeling, with a Bank Holiday weekend starting, and Boro already with 3 wins in the bag from the first 3 games. Nine points. Those points count, whenever you get them but it's better to have them banked. If we win the next game, then that's 12 points towards the promotion target. Usually, at this stage, we would be consoling ourselves: "We were really unlucky in games two and three"..."We played well and that bodes well for the future"..."We can catch up to the teams ahead if things go right for us".
We don't have to catch up with anybody. They have to catch up with us.
Great stuff!
@forever-dormo absolutely. It does feel great doesn't it..
This was Scot Wilson (The Echo) wrote:🚨 | Boropolis understands Middlesbrough have made a move for Lausanne forward Kaly Sène.
After @dailymailsport.
"There is a sense of excitement and optimism around Boro, with the imminent arrival of striker Kaly Sene from Lausanne representing more positive progress. With Matt Targett also on the verge of signing on loan from Newcastle United, Boro’s squad has come together nicely. Keep Hayden Hackney beyond the end of the month, and the Teessiders can be justifiably pleased with their summer business."
A magnificent win and start to the season. Come on Boro!
Up the Boro!
As somebody said earlier this was a match that Boro would have lost or drawn last season so it seems that the soft underbelly has gone. Grat stuff Boro and long may it continue.
A good Bank Holiday weekend and all credit to the coaches too, no more whispering behind hands.
UTB,
John
That, on the whole, was a pretty enjoyable watch, the last 10 minutes not so much as my feed decided to go into slow motion and miss bits. Isn't it good to have some proper defenders. Some credit needs to be given to the fitness coaches as there didn't seem that many of the players were blowing after a very intense 90+ minutes. Also noticed when there was a break in play and all of the players were on the sidelines, it was a coach, Viveash I presume, who was given out the messages whilst Edwards walked behind the group. First time since 94/5 that we have won the first 3 games of the season, in fact we won four that season, and we all know what happened at the end of that one.
Just looked at all the articles on the Gazette website and none of the articles this week were written by Chris Johns, and yesterday's "match report" was written by Stuart Jamieson so CJ wasn't at the game and there are no player ratings. Speaking of which, whoscred.com gave Tommy Conway our highest rating. Still not sure what metrics they use as at around the 30 minute mark the commentator said he had only 4 touches in the game.
@werdermouth Not quite correct. Both ways give my birth date as one year later. Possibly because my birthday is in December?
Yes it's only essentially the current year (1985 + 40 = 2025 or simply just 85 + 40 = 125) minus your age - so only works 100% on new year's eve once everyone has had their birthday🙂
What a great weekend. Wonderful not to feel "down" about football. I thought Rob Edwards was a good manager but maybe that description does him a disservice. Either that and/or the coaching team generally is an upgrade on what we had previously. BUT I know it is still very early days and I will not count my chickens just yet.
Well, I counted the three chicken-thigh fillets wrapped in bacon, cooked on the Cadac, which I had for dinner with a salad, but that's different, isn't it?
Metz forward Cheikh Sabaly is trying to force a move to Middlesbrough.
The Senegal international hasn’t trained since Monday. (L’Équipe - France)
Just finished looking at Kaly Sene stats on WiKi and they do not look impressive at all, certainly if he is supposed to be our new striker as Scott Wilson called him.
Great start to the season, all you can do is win games, yes not perfect but it's still blending in,
I'm impressed by the new forwards we've brought in, they look very bright,a little different to last seasons pragmatic ones, I hope Edwards lets them loose , defenders will be a bag of nerves ,
One area I'm a little concerned,I'm not impressed so far with RB, Ailing is doing two mens job right now, Brittain is constantly out of position,looks slow on recovery, doesn't cross a good ball, hope it's just a new system, Sammy's been doing a great job on the left.
Finally, the last thing we need is a Sheffield Utd bottom of the league coming in , We know they'll be chomping to stick it to us, this game will tell a story
COB
Just finished looking at Kaly Sene stats on WiKi and they do not look impressive at all, certainly if he is supposed to be our new striker as Scott Wilson called him.
I suppose it all depends how far back we look.
So far this season, he has scored 6 times from 8 appearances.
Last season it was 7 goals from 36 appearances.
The previous season it was 12 from 36.
Compare this with one Chuba Apkom who has yet to score this season. Last season scored 8 times in 42 matches, and the previous season 15 from 36.
Arguably he (Sène) is in good form at the moment and his record overall arguably is comparable to someone else we might have been happy to have back.